Monday, May 5, 2008

Some of us have been asking for public policies for supporting Biotech and educating the people better about the promises and risks of Genetically Modified Organism (GM) crops.

Maybe this crisis will prove to be the factor that triggers better acceptance of GM food. Hopefully this support will promote the growth of GM projects from small teams, with a set of OS tools, with non-profit purposes instead of the current system, where only the big players can afford to create new crops tailored to their commercial interest, as they are the only ones who can afford the expensive trials and the huge lobbying needed to get these crops approved.

Paradoxically, by insisting on moratoriums and strict bans, consumer activists and ecologists reduce the possible GM diversity and concentrate the power of determining the course of research in agriculture in a few corporate hands. Their actions lead to a future that many of us deem as undesirable. We cannot let those few companies determine the fate of the new crops according to commercial interests, we must fight for more diversity in the food chain and tailor crops to local growing needs.